At UFC Vegas 26, Alex Morono (19-7, 1 NC) had a golden opportunity presented to him. Diego Sanchez was supposed to fight Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone (36-16, 2 NC) on the main card of the event.
However, after some issues outside of the octagon, the UFC pulled Sanchez from the card and released him. Cerrone wanted his next fight to be at lightweight, but he agreed to fight Sanchez at 170 pounds.
With Cowboy agreeing to stay on the card, the UFC started looking for welterweights. Alex Morono hadn’t fought since December when he lost a decision to former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis.
When the UFC called and asked Morono to take the fight, he didn’t hesitate accepting. The promotion went back to Cowboy with Morono as an opponent and of course, Cowboy didn’t say no.
With that, UFC Vegas 26 had a new co-main event. With nothing to lose, Alex Morono was looking to make a splash on Saturday night and that is what he did. Late in the first round, he hurt the UFC legend with a huge right hand.
Cerrone backed up to the fence and tried to recover, but Morono wouldn’t let him. Morono kept pouring on the shots and eventually the referee stepped in and Morono picked up the massive TKO win.
What’s next after UFC Vegas 26?
This is a very interesting win for Alex Morono at UFC Vegas 26. On one hand, it’s a big win in terms of name recognition and visibility. However, it doesn’t really move the needle in terms of his place at welterweight.
With that in mind, what should the UFC do with Morono next? Well, I think the best thing would be to find a welterweight in a very similar position. Personally, I love the idea of Morono fighting Randy Brown (13-4) next.
Randy Brown is coming off of a win against a Cowboy himself. Brown defeated “Cowboy” Alex Oliveira at UFC 261 which was a nice bounce back win after his knockout loss to Vicente Luque.
Morono and Brown are in two very similar positions. Both are coming off okay wins and both need another win to get them closer to the top fifteen. Fighting each other would show the UFC who is ready for that next step.